The present invention relates to an exercise machine, in particular set up for connection to the Internet network.
As is known, there are various types of exercise machines, used in gyms by users wanting to improve or maintain their physical fitness by exercising the various muscles in their bodies.
Such exercise machines may be used both for cardiovascular type training (for example, treadmills, bikes, recliners, steppers, elliptical cross-trainers, etc.), and for training intended to improve the athlete's strength (for example, shoulder presses, chest presses, etc.).
At present, each of these exercise machines can be connected to the Internet network, so that a remote trainer, that is to say, a trainer not able to be close to the machine and speak directly to the user at that moment, can still be kept informed about machine operation and the athlete's performance, and can also interact with the machine, setting its characteristic parameters and operating values, according to the capacity and condition of the user.
Exercise machines in prior art, therefore, have a predetermined number of sensors, each designed to detect a machine operating parameter, preferably relative to the exercise performed by the user, and a processing unit, designed to gather the information from the sensors and transmit it to the remote trainer.
For this purpose, the above-mentioned processing unit, basically made like a conventional PC, has a connection software, which allows connection to the Internet network and data transmission to the trainer. As indicated above, according to the information received, if necessary, the trainer changes the machine settings, so that the training is tailored to the requirements and athletic condition of the user.
A first operating limit relative to the systems described above is the fact that Internet connections between the exercise machine and the remote trainer required the exercise machine to always connect as the “client”, necessitating minimum software-hardware requirements at least equal to those of a conventional PC. In particular, the processor associated with the exercise machine must have at least one Internet browser, including all the applications necessary to detect and interpret text, images, sounds regularly encountered when browsing on the Internet network.
This has quite a negative effect on the production costs and overall dimensions of each exercise machine.
In addition to the above, in order to activate the Internet connection with the trainer each time the athlete must perform his or her exercises and requires supervision by his or her trainer, a keyboard, mouse and display are generally essential, further increasing the space occupied by the machine, during both transportation and use.